The present invention pertains to a rubber bottle with a bottle body, a bottle neck, which has a filling opening for filling in a hot or cold liquid, especially water, at its free end, and with a closure for closing the filling opening.
Such a rubber bottle has been known from, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,363, U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,646, U.S. Pat. No. 2,544,929, and GB 141 035. Such rubber bottles are called, in general, hot-water bottles, even though they may just as well also be filled with cold water and thus be used to cool an area of the body. These prior-art rubber hot-water bottles have a very short, hardly perceptible bottle neck, whose filling opening is closed by means of a clamping closure. The drawback of this prior-art rubber hot-water bottle is above all that the clamping closure forms a thickening and is arranged close to the body of the bottle. The closure is therefore felt by the user to be disturbing when he is lying on the bottle. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous that the rubber hot-water bottles must be grasped directly at the neck of the bottle for filling in the hot water. As a result, there is a risk that the user may, e.g., scald himself with splash water. Furthermore, residual air can be removed from the bottle with difficulty only in the case of the prior-art rubber hot-water bottle.
DE-PS 480 921 shows a rubber hot-water bottle, in which a long neck is folded back onto itself several times. The bottle is closed securely as a result. A similar principle is shown in DE-PS 474 443. The drawback of this is the cumbersome and complicated closing of the bottle and the hard thickening caused by the packet of the folded neck directly at the edge of the body of the bottle. This design is therefore very similar to the rubber hot-water bottle used generally.
DE 297 00 310 U1 describes a belt-like rubber hot-water bottle, which can also be worn during sitting or walking. The drawback of this design is that hot water is also present, e.g., in the belts, where it has no benefit and is rather disadvantageous.
The rubber hot-water bottles shown in WO 91/06269 with a special shape are suitable mainly for the special forms of application shown.
Based on this, the basic object of the present invention is to improve a rubber bottle of the type mentioned in the introduction such that the closure is not disturbing when the user is lying, e.g., with his back on the bottle.
To accomplish this object, the rubber bottle according to the present invention is characterized in that the neck of the bottle is designed as a long tube, such that the closure is located at such a spaced location from the body of the bottle when the filling opening is closed that the closure is not located under the user""s body during the use of the rubber bottle.
Due to the fact that the closure is located at a markedly spaced location from the body of the bottle because of the long, tubular bottle neck, the closure is no longer located under the user, but is led away from him. The closure is thus not disturbing any longer. During filling, the bottle neck of a rubber bottle, which first lies on a substrate, is raised, and the rubber bottle is filled up to the point of attachment of the bottle neck, i.e., the body of the bottle is filled to the brim. All the air present is now displaced from the body of the bottle without the rubber bottle overflowing, because the neck of the bottle is still available quasi as a reserve. If the user raises a rubber bottle that had been filled excessively somewhat higher, the excess water enters the body of the bottle because the volume of the stretchable rubber bottle, more precisely the volume of the body of the bottle, increases due to the force of gravity. Residual air in the body of the bottle, on the one hand, and overflowing of the rubber bottle during filling, on the other hand, are avoided with certainty as a result, which was not possible in conventional rubber bottles.
Furthermore, all prior-art embodiments have in common the drawback that the bottle must be grasped for filling directly at the neck of the bottle, which entails the above-described risk of scalding. According to a variant, a clamping means for closing the neck of the bottle is arranged on the neck of the bottle. The clamping means has corresponding clamping jaws, between which the neck of the bottle can be clamped. The clamping jaws are used in the opened position as a grip for grasping the rubber bottle during filling. Thus, the rubber bottle does not need to be grasped directly by the neck of the bottle any longer, but it has a separate grip in the clamping means. The risk of scalding is thus avoided with certainty.
The clamping means itself is detachably connected to the neck of the bottle by suitable means and it can thus be removed from the neck of the bottle for cleaning purposes. Separate disposal of the clamping means and the rubber bottle, e.g., for recycling, is also possible. For example, hand straps may be used to detachably fasten the clamping means to the neck of the bottle.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, means are provided by which a force is applied to the neck of the bottle for opening the filling opening during the filling with the clamping means opened. Consequently, the filling opening of the rubber bottle is automatically opened by the clamping means in the opened position of the said clamping means, so that the bottle can be filled reliably and easily due to this measure as well. According to a first embodiment, the means for opening are the hand straps, by which the clamping means is held on the neck of the bottle such that the neck of the bottle opens in the spread-apart position of the clamping means. Tongues of the clamping means, which can be inserted into the hand straps to attach the clamping means, may be provided. According to another, alternative embodiment, the means for opening the filling opening are designed such that a pressure is applied to the neck of the bottle at right angles to the closing pressure in the opened position of the clamping means, so that the neck of the bottle opens for filling with the clamping means opened.